Bio-Mechatronic Modules for Robotic Massage

In the paper the robotic systems for restorative medicine including massage are considered. The features of robot training, the features of unusual environment – patient’s soft tissues and the features of non-invasive interaction of robot with soft tissues are emphasized. Nowadays there are specialized and research robots for massage only in the world but universal robotic systems for massage are absent. So it is necessary to have the devices which can adapt the serially produced non-medical robots for performing massage. These devices have to perform the functions of mechanics, electronics, computing and to interact with biological environment – patient’s soft tissues. So they can be named bio-mechatronic modules. The following bio-mechatronic modules are considered: the handle for manual spatial continuous robot training at soft tissues deforming, active force module for compensations of displacements of a patient at his breathing, module for program training of force points and spring compensator of force overload at unexpected obstacle. These bio-mechatronic modules directly interact with soft tissue by the tool imitating masseur’s hand and they take part in the following: admittance control for the robot training by demonstration; position-force control at reproduction; bio-diagnostics and bio-technical control of patient’s state; amortization of quick approach to untrained areas and as tool carrier.